Your Guardian Angel: A Nejiten Story
by Gemina
Summary: Tenten has always had Neji to catch her, and she's always appreciated his friendship. Neji has always had Tenten to cover his back, and he appreciates her friendship as well. But what if, deep down, he want more and doesn't realize it, Kibaten Nejiten


**I found this story while going through some old documents. Enjoy! **

Tenten ran through the forest, her breath coming in quick short gasps. The kunai in her abdomen was slowing her down, and making it hard to breath normally. At this rate, the sound nin behind her would catch up soon. She winced as she jarred her abdomen again. Her mind wandered back to the fight; what had gone wrong?

She suppressed a shudder as she heard a sound nin hitting the branches heavily behind her. He was a big one. She risked a glance backwards, only to slip on the next branch and go hurtling for the ground. She felt her stomach drop to her feet, and braced herself for impact. A blur caught her before she hit the ground. Neji had caught her. But where was Lee? She looked up at Neji anxiously.

Neji blinked, then stopped and ducked behind a boulder, seconds before an explosion sounded behind them. As the explosion died down, Neji rapidly unwrapped the bandages on his right arm. Tenten, still taking short, sharp breaths, looked at him questioningly. What was he doing? She caught on when he pulled her shirt partway up to expose the wound. He quickly began bandaging it. Tenten winced. Neji was not taking any precaution to be gentle.

A second later, Lee showed up. He looked at Tenten anxiously. Neji rolled his eyes at him.

" She'll live."

Lee relaxed and settled himself down. He had his own set of battle wounds, but he had had the luck not to get any as bad as Tenten. Neji handed him some of his leftover bandages. Lee grinned and started bandaging himself. Neji cleared his throat. His eyes looked wandered around the immediate vicinity.

" Where's the captive, Lee?"

Lee didn't stop grinning for a second. He stopped bandaging for a moment to give Neji a thumbs up.

" Hidden safely in a cave, Neji. Mission accomplished."

Neji shook his head at Lee.

" The mission is not accomplished until the captive is safely in Konoha."

Lee shrugged.

" We are pretty close..."

Standing up, Neji once again shook his head.

" You shouldn't count your chickens before they're hatched, Lee. Fate has a habit of snatching things away."

Leaning over to give Tenten a hand up, Lee smiled.

"And you shouldn't be so pessimistic, Neji."

Neji left to find the captive, rolling his eyes at Lee. Lee laced Tenten's arm around his shoulder. He smiled at her encouragingly.

"Let's get going."

With that, he took off, dragging her along with him. Tenten winced; her abdomen still hurt...

---

Despite Neji's pessimism, they arrived back in Konoha safely. Lee and Neji dropped her off at the hospital, assuring her that they would file the mission report and bring her her share of the pay. Tenten settled down in her bed to wait. Sakura had fixed her up well, she probably could leave right now and be fine. She'd suggested the idea to Lee and Neji, but Lee had profusely disagreed, and Neji had pointed out that she'd rip her stitching.

She started leafing through the pamphlet Lee had left her about stomach wounds. It wasn't that exciting, and it really wasn't relevant to her situation. Her stomach wound, after all, was not that deep, and it had also not developed gangrene. She set down the pamphlet, the pictures were making her sick.

She tapped her fingers boredly. What was taking those two so long?

----

Lee and Neji ate ramen together at Ichiraku's ramen stand. They were discussing the mission that day, and what probably went wrong with the plan. Mostly, Neji was taking Lee up on his offer to buy him ramen. Tenten wouldn't mind waiting for a little longer, right?

---

Tenten had gotten up and started to pace her room. Maybe the Hokage had kept them late? Well, she might as well take a peek outside her room, after all, she'd promised not to leave the hospital, she'd said nothing about her hospital room...she grinned as she thought of the loop hole and changed out of her hospital gown into her normal clothes.

She cracked open her door and looked out. No one in sight. She walked tentatively out. Just as she though no one would be coming her way, a loud "I'm coming, Hinata!" echoed down the hall, and a blur ran into her. She looked up dazedly from her postion on the floor. Kiba seemed to be saying something to her, as he bent over and pulled her back to her feet, only to have her fall over again.

"I'm really, really, sorry! I didn't see you! Are you okay? Hello? Is anyone home?"

He flipped out a small flashlight and shined it in her eyes. That woke her up.

" Ow!"

Kiba quickly shut off his flashlight with a grin.

"No concussion. Are you okay?"

Tenten nodded slowly. She suddenly realized Kiba had his arm wrapped around her waist. Her cheeks flushed red. Kiba looked at her with concern.

"Hey, are you okay? You look like you have a fever."

He put his hand on her forehead, causing her to blush deeper. She kicked herself mentally.

'You moron! You never have this problem around Neji or Lee! What's wrong with you?!'

Kiba started pulling her back towards her room.

"Do you think, maybe you should lie down?"

Tenten shook her head. She was feeling better now, since her head cleared. An idea popped into her head.

"Where are you going?"

Kiba grinned and held up a get-well box of chocolates.

"Hinata's room. She got hurt while she was training by herself."

Tenten nodded sympathetically. She'd done to herself quite a few times. She remembered Lee and Gai visiting her at every opportunity they could, bringing her so many chocolates she still had some at home. Poor Hinata, she probably didn't have very many people to visit her, her father despised her. She doubted Neji would visit her. Neji would just shake his head and say "She shouldn't have been trying to train herself."

She looked back at Kiba.

"I'll come with you. I haven't seen Hinata in some time."

Kiba looked at her quizzically.

"I didn't think you knew her that well."

Tenten smiled.

"We met when Neji forgot his lunch and Hinata was nice enough to bring it to him. Can't say he was that cordial about it."

She shook her head thinking back to poor little Hinata, cowering as she handed Neji his lunch. She started walking to Hinata's room with Kiba.

"They weren't exactly on good terms." She explained.

Kiba nodded, then rolled his eyes.

"I'd say Neji wasn't on good terms with Hinata. Hinata still wanted to be friends."

Tenten nodded in agreement. They walked a few more seconds, then Kiba stuck his arm out in front of her.

"We're here." He gestured towards the door to Tenten's left.

Tenten pulled the door open and let Kiba through first. Then she walked in. She'd been right about the lack of visitors. Hinata was lying in bed, in a dreary empty room. Not even a card brightened the room. Hinata smiled when she saw the two of them.

"Kiba! Tenten!"

Kiba grinned at her. He hid the box of chocolates behind his back.

"Guess which hand?"

Hinata laughed and pointed his left. Kiba grinned and handed her the box. Hinata opened it and popped one into her mouth. She looked back up at Kiba with a smile.

"Thank you, Kiba. You're the best. Do you want one?"

Kiba grinned and took one, and Hinata held out the box to Tenten. Tenten smiled and accepted one. Kiba sat down on the end of the bed.

"So, where'd you get hurt this time?"

Hinata patted her stomach lightly.

"I'm afraid my new technique wasn't such a good idea..."

She sighed and looked down. Kiba looked at her with a slightly worried expression. Hinata looked back up, this time with a brave smile planted planted on her face.

"I'll try harder next time..."

Kiba shook his head. He gave Hinata the thumbs up.

"You're doing great Hinata! Don't forget, third time's the charm! Do you want to play cards?"

Hinata nodded and Tenten slid over to play. Kiba grinned and started dealing.

----2 hours later-----

Neji made his way towards the hospital. Lee wasn't able to come with him, because he would go over his curfew, and his grandma would kill him. Neji shook his head. Lee, the chuunin, was afraid of his grandma. He hoped Tenten wouldn't be too upset that he'd kept her waiting. He shouldn't have stayed that long. Just then, a long, dark shadow crossed his path; Hiashi.

"Neji, where have you been?"

Neji racked his brain for anything important he might have missed. Nothing came to mind...

"On a mission, with my team, Honourable Uncle."

Hiashi seemed displeased with this. it was hard to tell though, because it was dark, and a shadow hid his face.

"You and I both know you were back earlier than that."

Neji nodded. He'd been with Lee for most of the evening. He wasn't aware of anything important happening today...

"I spent some time with my teammate, Lee."

Hiashi kept his stiff posture, as if he might be angry about something.

"Were you aware that your cousin has been injured and is in the hospital?"

Neji wondered for a second if he should lie and say that was why he was headed towards the hospital. He decided against it.

"No, Hiashi sama. I will go visit her now."

He bowed and turned to go. He wondered what had made Hiashi suddenly care that much about Hinata...

---

Kiba laughed with delight, collapsing on the ground with Tenten the second Neji was out of hearing range. Tenten was laughing so hard she was gasping for air.

"Did you see the look on his face?! He was so confused!"

Tenten nodded in agreement. She chuckled.

"Hinata will be so happy her cousin came to see her!"

Kiba rolled back onto his stomach. He looked over at her seriously.

"That was a really good idea. You and I should work together more often."

He scratched the back of his neck. Tenten smiled.

"Yeah." She agreed, panting.

Kiba sat up. Tenten sat up too, looking confused. Why was he looking so serious?

"I was wondering, since we get along so well, and I think I like you..." He stopped and looked her in the eyes. "Will you...be my girlfriend?"

Tenten gasped. She had not been expecting that...but it didn't seem like such a bad idea. He was funny, outgoing, cute, and honest. She smiled.

"Yes."

------

Neji walked into Hinata's room cautiously. She looked up at him in surprise. It wasn't like they didn't get along or anything, she just never expected him to visit her after she'd been stupid enough to hurt herself training.

Neji looked back at her, and pulled a chair up to her bed. He sat down with an air of finality.

"How are you."

It wasn't a question, it was more like a statement, like he was just going through the motions. Hinata decided to answer him anway.

"I'm doing fine, just sliced into my stomach with a chakra whip."

Neji seemed to gain some interest.

"Chakra whip? What sort of technique are you working on?"

Hinata smiled inwardly. At least something about her would interest Neji. She launched into a detailed description of the technique she was trying to invent. Neji listened carefully, then pointed out the flaws in her technique. After talking about it for a while, they both fell silent.

Hinata desperately searched her brain for something to talk about that involved both of them. She loved when her cousin actually got into a conversation with her. She didn't want him to stop talking to her just yet.

Then she hit on something...wasn't tommorrow Neji's birthday?

"Isn't tommorrow your birthday?"

Neji's expression darkened.

"No."

Hinata looked confused. It was someone's birthday tommorrow, it was marked on her father's calendar...

"Do you know whose it is? It's marked on the calendar, but I can't remember..."

Neji stood up abruptly.

"If this is your idea of a joke, it's not funny." He said darkly.

He turned to leave. Hinata could see that his fists were clenched. What had she said?

"Wait, what's wrong?"

Neji turned out the door stiffly, and she could tell she'd somehow made him very angry.

"Neji?!"

Hinata sat there, wondering what had made her cousin so angry...

**I'm busy trying to remember why he was angry...oh well, it should come to me by the next update...maybe I already made a chapter two..*starts looking through old computer***

---


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